Cain Velasquez is MMA's best heavyweight, so you might as well get used to it

For the first time in a long time, we can say it: Now we really know who the best heavyweight in the world is.

We probably also know who the second-best is, not that that unofficial designation will be of much comfort to Junior dos Santos as he returns home and waits for the swelling to go down.

Against UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez (13-1 MMA, 11-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 166 pay-per-view headliner at Houston’s Toyota Center, dos Santos (16-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) again made the mistake of thinking he could fight with his back glued to the fence. Again he found out how wrong he was early on, and then had to spend the next few rounds paying for his mistake as the smaller, quicker Velasquez punched his way into one clinch after another, pausing there just long enough to let the big Brazilian’s blood drip down onto him before backing up and starting the cycle all over again.

And for Velasquez, that’s how it seemed: like a cycle, a routine he was programmed to follow. He’d come out for the start of another round, back dos Santos into the fence, and then get to work. Every once in a while he had to eat an elbow or a left hand on the way in, but that was fine. He’d get where he was going eventually, and then the beating could resume. Wash, rinse, repeat.

That’s the great strength of Velasquez. Sure, he’s also fast and powerful and utterly unrelenting, but mostly he’s methodical. It’s as if he’s got a factory setting that’s just a few RPMs higher than most heavyweights, and he never slows down or speeds up as the fight progresses. He doesn’t take rounds off. He doesn’t freak out trying to finish. You can’t intimidate him or wear him down or get him to spend energy he doesn’t have. He’s got the fighting style of a torpedo and the personality to match.

If dos Santos is the big, cuddly teddy bear of the heavyweight division, then Velasquez is the wooden soldier. To interview him is to be reminded of a terrible first date you went on with a person who hated you. Each question is another dead end. The silence between them seems to be uncomfortable only to you. He’s waiting for this to be over, and he doesn’t care if you know it.

It’s in the cage where he expresses himself, though even then it’s without an abundance of flair or creativity or even much obvious enjoyment. Once you’ve seen him fight, there aren’t many surprises in his game. The ref says go, and he goes. The ref says stop, and he stops. When it’s over and he’s won, he seems pleased, but not overjoyed. Maybe it’s because he expected it. Maybe it’s because that same even, murderous rhythm that he adheres to in the fight won’t release him once it’s done.

By winning the rubber match in his trilogy with dos Santos, Velasquez didn’t just establish himself as the world’s best heavyweight. He also managed to rewrite the history of their first encounter, the one where dos Santos planted him facedown on the mat on network television. If that seemed like a fluke to some people then, it only seems more so after Velasquez won the next two fights in almost identical fashion.

After two fights it seemed like they could fight 10 times and break more or less even. After three it seems like Velasquez could do this every single day and still have enough left for the weekend matinee.

And dos Santos? Well, he proved that he doesn’t mind taking a beating, but we knew that already. If the third fight taught us anything that the second one didn’t, it’s that maybe he could stand to mind it a little more. It might add years to his career, or at least keep him from leaving the arena with a face that’s twice as big as the one he showed up with.

For now this series can stand as a trilogy. The book seems closed, the questions seem answered, and Velasquez can move on to a new challenge. The UFC heavyweight title has historically been one of the slipperiest titles in combat sports, but he seems to have as firm a grasp on it as anyone ever has. If there’s a better heavyweight in MMA, I doubt we’ve met him yet.

Does that make Velasquez happy? Sure. It has to, right? He’d probably say it did if you asked him. He just might not be able to muster the smile to prove it.

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